Metonymy is a Cognitive Mechanism of News Discourse

The paper considers metonymy as a cognitive mechanism widely used in news discourse. Views of different scholars on the concept of metonymy were analyzed in this paper. The problem of metonymy in linguistics is associated with two functions: 1) as a means of creating artistic speech; 2) as a means of nomination. The second part of the paper deals with different trends of metonymic transfer: psychological, logical and semiotic. In the third part, different classifications on the types of metonymic transfer are given. Finally, the fourth part of the paper considers the cognitive approach to metonymic study. The cognitive mechanism of conceptual metonymy operates within a single conceptual domain, one element replacing another. The replacement element is called a vehicle. It opens up access to another conceptual structure called the concept target within a single conceptual domain at the mental level.In news discourse, metonymy is used to express a concept economically. A shift in focus in metonymic nomination creates a positive or negative assessment, distortion of information, and depersonalization of individual referents to influence the reader. Thus, metonymy has a referential function, i. e. it allows one entity to replace another. But metonymy is not only a referential device. It also serves to understand